Snowman Advent Calendar

Adriana is 2.5 years old, which means she understands a lot more this Christmas than she did last year. We have talked about Christmas and how it is the celebration of Jesus' arrival. We have read lots of books and started this early in November. For a while now Adriana has been asking when we will be celebrating Jesus' 'Birth'day. To start the countdown I thought a handmade calendar by us both will get her to be more involved in the process. Visually she can see how close we are to Christmas Day. It also displays our work of art on the wall and the nice reminder of togetherness.

If you want to make this Snowman Advent Calendar with your little ones, this is what you will need and these are the steps to follow to make it.

What you will need: 

1. Cardboard from a recycled cereal box or any box you have around the house. 
2. Constructions paper (1 black sheet and 1 green sheet)
3. 1 Round head paper fastener
4. 3 Red pompoms 
5. 1 Medium paper plate 
6. 1 hole puncher
7. 1 Glue gun with 2 glue sticks
8. Black sharpie
9. Orange crayon
10. Black thread to hang the calendar  

Directions:

1. Cut a hat shape and a carrot shape out of the side of the cereal box. Make sure it is a good size on the plate you will be using (do not glue anything on yet). 
2. Give the carrot shape cardboard and the orange crayon to your child to colour. 
3. Next, trace the hat shape cardboard on the the black construction paper and cut it out. 
4. Then, glue the construction paper onto the cardboard shaped hat to give it that finished look. 
5. Cut out two small leaves out of the green construction paper and glue them onto the left side of the hat. Glue three of the pompoms to look like the photo above. 
6. Then, use the remainder of the black construction paper and cut out two medium circles for the eyes and 6-7 mini circles for the smile. 
7. Next, glue the eyes and the smile onto the plate. Then, glue the completed hat it on the top of the snowman plate. 
8. After, take the coloured in carrot cardboard and stick the paper fastener into the top of the carrot. Then, poke a hole in the centre of the plate with the same fastener for the carrot nose. Make sure to open up the flaps at the back to hold its place. 
9. Next, add your numbers 1-25 around the edge of the plate using your black sharpie.
10. Finally, use the hole puncher to punch a hole into the snowman plates hat. Then, loop your black thread into the hole and tie it at the ends.

You can now start your countdown to Christmas Day using the rotating carrot nose pointing to the numbers around the paper plate. We used Command damage free hanger to hang our Snowman Advent Calendar in our kitchen. Hope you enjoy this easy and fun activity!